Adobe’s Incredible Digitized Brushes Resurrect Munch

Just when we thought they were done, Adobe has come swinging out of the gate once more with one of their coolest ideas yet.

Ever since Photoshop came onto the scene, it has been the industry standard for any sort of digital manipulation work. From photography to digital painting to even 3D modeling, Adobe’s darling has withstood the test of time.

It’s through no small feat of the company, either. Adobe has pumped considerable resources into their app, ensuring that it stays healthy and vibrant in a field where one slip could give your competitor a leading edge.

The most recent addition the Photoshop toolset comes in the form of brushes. Only recently did Adobe announce they would be partnering with Kyle Webster from kylbrush.com, to bring his incredibly detailed and meticulously crafted brushes to Creative Cloud users for free. The brushes range from immaculate painterly strokes, brittle and sparse concept brushes, to hard-lined Manga brushes.

Not content with leaving the bar there, Adobe have taken it to the next level by adding a series of brushes that are sure to turn everyone’s head. Adobe have sent their newly developed brush squad, led by Webster himself, over to Oslo to scan in the brushes of Edvard Munch himself.

Edvard Munch, for those that are unaware, is the painter of the instantly recognizable piece “The Scream”. Yes, that’s right. If you have a Creative Cloud subscription you now have access to the very brushes that Munch donated to the Munch Museum in Norway – the brushes that he used to paint are now yours.

It’s an understatement to call Adobe’s move a masterstroke in both customer service and marketing. How many other companies can claim to give their users the brushes of a legendary 19th century painter? Much more than just a clever marketing ploy, Munch’s brushes now exist in photoshop just as any other tool preset would – except, you know, they belong to an incredibly historically significant painter.

If this is a sign of things to come, color us excited. Adobe have proven that they are willing to not only think outside the box, but go the extra mile as well. What’s next on the list? 4K textures of some of the world’s leading pattern and texture creators? The exact skin tone of the Mona Lisa? There’s no limit to what Adobe could produce given the extent they went to in landing an evening of scanning Munch’s brushes.

The Creative Cloud was a must-have when it first dropped, and Adobe have since pushed it into the stratosphere and realm of “get your head checked if you’ve already not subscribed”. Yet, while they continue to dominate on the creative side of things, they’ve stayed relatively mum on their Marketing Cloud – which is currently only available as a demo for companies to trial out.

Should Adobe prove to be as capable of revolutionizing marketing tools as they have their creative software, we may very well see a Google-like catapult the company even higher up the list. Oh well. Nothing to do but to wait and see. At least we’ve got Munch’s brushes to keep us busy.

Nikola is a carbon-based life-form residing on Earth dimension C-137. Lover of all things fast and furious. When he's not tapping away at a keyboard, he can be found aimlessly drifting in cyberspace, looking for signs of intelligent life.